clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Miami Vs. West Virginia: 'Eers Whip 'Canes After Strong Second Half, 77-66

Another hard fought win for the Mountaineers, this time against the ACC's Miami Hurricanes, 77-66 in Morgantown.  Here's what's notable from tonight's win:

 

  • The Truck lighting it up!  Truck Bryant went for a career high 27 points tonight, and played far and away his best basketball of the season.  He has seemed to shake his previous shooting slump, and got his 27 on 9-12 shooting from the floor, and 5-7 from three.  His long shots were falling, but he was equally effective getting into traffic and putting it off the glass.  He was also a perfect four for four from the free throw line. He filled the void left by a double teamed Kevin Jones, something he will have to continue to do as more teams key on KJ.
  • The Turk doing work! Deniz Kilicli also had one of the best performances of his career, dropping in 18 points and hauling in 8 boards.  The big man looked dominant offensively laying the ball in through a variety of well orchestrated post moves.  When his inside game is rolling he's hard to stop.  Kilicli also dished out five assists, a pleasant surprise which showed how much he's developed his court awareness.  His little no look bounce pass to a cutting Truck Bryant was the play of the game in the second half and will fill WVU highlight reels for years to come.
  • A team succeeding with out Kevin Jones.  Jones has been a beast so far this season, and Miami's entire game plan seemed to be to take him out of the game offensively.  The 'Canes succeeded, but luckily for WVU fans the rest of the Mountaineers stepped up to fill the void.  WVU has been a one man team so far this year, so it's good to see them control the game without Jones.  That said, the Miami frontline can't hold a candle to talent the 'Eers will see in Big East play, so lets hope more teams don't make KJ disappear.
  • The Brown(e)s.  Freshmen Gary Browne and Aaron Brown both played big minutes tonight off the bench and contributed 9 and 7 points respectively.  Right now any freshmen points are a boon to the Mountaineers and these two contributed a big way to the Mountaineers' second half push.  West Virginia started the second half down 35-37 but went on a 23-5 run to push the score to 60-40.  Huggins let the hot hands ride out the run and both freshmen played long minutes alongside the WVU upperclassmen.  Aaron Brown hit a couple of big shots and Gary Browne helped keep the Mountaineer offense humming during the stretch and Huggins may have found his best lineup.
The Mountaineers now have a week off for finals week and resume play next Saturday against Texas AM Corpus Christie.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.